Scituate tops South Shore in average teacher pay

Teachers in more than half the school districts on the South Shore earned more than the statewide average salary of $72,176 in 2013, and Scituate ranked 19th in the state for teacher pay at $83,744.

Chris Burrell The Patriot Ledger @Burrell_Ledger

Teachers in more than half the school districts on the South Shore earned more than the statewide average salary of $72,176 in 2013, and Scituate ranked 19th in the state for teacher pay.

The average pay for a Scituate teacher was $83,744 – $12,203 shy of the average $95,947 for Concord-Carlisle, the state’s top-paying district. That made Scituate the 19th best-paying school, according to ranking by the state Department of Education.

Quincy, Hingham, Cohasset, Milton, Hanover and Hull ranked in the top 100. Teachers in Holbrook and Plymouth earned among the region’s lowest salaries. In Holbrook, average teacher pay is $57,000 a year. Plymouth pays its teachers $62,864 a year on average.

Steven Greenberg, a professor of education at Bridgewater State University and a former school principal, said that while teacher salaries have risen in the last couple decades, the job is still underpaid.

“Historically, it’s been a female profession, and there was a gender bias that they didn’t have to earn a living wage,” said Greenberg. “And now we’re radically underpaying them for the amount of work we need them to do.”

There’s increased pressure from the high-stakes state MCAS exam and demands on teachers that have nothing to do with academic curriculum such as bullying prevention or issues around gun violence, added Greenberg.

In Scituate, schools Superintendent John E. McCarthy said that salaries don’t tell the whole story of compensation. While average pay for teachers in the town is higher than the state average, the teachers must contribute 47 percent of the premium for family health insurance.

“Teachers pay more for health insurance here,” he said.

He also said that Scituate teacher contracts before the 2008 recession granted pay raises of 3 percent for several years. “That may have advanced salaries a little quicker than in some other districts,” he said.

A Scituate teacher with 14 years of experience, a master’s degree and additional training earns a top-scale pay of more than $91,000 a year, according to the current contract.

By comparison, longtime teachers in Weymouth hit the top-paying scale at 12 years with about $75,000 salary for similar educational levels.

More than 200 teachers in Weymouth public schools are at or near the top step, and overall teachers there earn an average salary of $73,459 a year, just above the state average.

Weymouth Schools Superintendent Kenneth Salim is less concerned about teacher salaries and more focused on teacher retention. Nationally, about 30 percent of new teachers quit the profession within the first five years.

“There’s bigger questions around this generation of teachers coming in,” said Salim. “Some are not coming into the profession to stay there lifelong. How do we provide a valuable career where teachers can see themselves in five, 10 or 15 years?”